Media content is increasingly delivered to end user devices over data networks using an array of streaming technologies. Providers of streaming content services want to be able to support a wide range of end user devices having wide ranging capabilities and many different types and versions of media players. New streaming techniques are constantly being developed, but are often not supported by older or less capable devices or media players. So, if content service providers want to be able to provide content to such devices or players in a way that takes advantage of such new techniques, they need to be able to find ways around these limitations.
For example, a content service provider might want to provide a video-on-demand (VOD) presentation that includes content originating from more than one source, e.g., a movie with inserted ad content. However, many older media players may not be able to handle content that originates from more than one source.